Indian govt. piggy backs on religion to censor the web

[rug]

By Manan Kakkar | December 6, 2011, 12:18am PST

Summary: Communications and IT minister Kapil Sibal is in discussion with tech companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Twitter to pre-screen user generated content so that community-sentiments are not hurt. Yeah, right!

The past 24 hours have had Twitter and Facebook users in India up in arms. The New York Times broke a story about the Communications and IT minister’s plans to censor the web triggered the outcry. India is a democratic country with several religions and faiths, what might seem humorous to someone can be really offensive to another; emotions run high. Incidents of communities taking to the streets and vandalizing public property are not shocking. It is such incidents that India’s Communication and IT minister, Kapil Sibal cited as reasons as to why he wants the web screened.

As someone who has been closely watching the developments in the telecom sector, Kapil Sibal was doing quite a commendable job till today. Making absurd statements like the government not wanting to censor the web and is against censorship while following this with plans of devising policies and a framework to screen content that is being uploaded to social media websites, is disappointing. During the press conference that Kapil Sibal admitted was a reaction to the New York Times story, his expressions and responses were vague. It was clear that he was not prepared for the backlash on the web and the questions that awaited him.

Kapil Sibal says satirical representation of public figures while acceptable should not disturb the communal harmony. The collective intelligence of Twitter has had a field day with Kapil Sibal’s statements and is giving Kapil Sibal exactly what the government plans to curb. According to Kapil Sibal, his conversation with representatives from Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook are preliminary. The government has presented a draft framework on what the government doesn’t want on the Internet. The Indian National Congress, led by Sonia Gandhi is the heading the government and there have been several caricatures of her on the Internet. Choosing religion as the reason is, well, a smart political stand; something those following Indian politics expect. Kapil Sibal wants social media platforms to pre-screen the content that is being uploaded and censor content that the politicians believe shouldn’t be on the Internet.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/india/indian-govt-piggy-backs-on-religion-to-censor-the-web/791

[darkstar3]

1. Censorship is, unquestionably, never the answer.

[NMMNG]

2. Disgusting

:puke:

[Vehl]

3. Misleading title

"Kapil Sibal says satirical representation of public figures while acceptable should not disturb the communal harmony."

^^ IN other words, he took umbrage to some satirical comments/posts made about Sonia Gandhi,the leader of his party (the Congress party).Sonia Gandhi is a catholic Italian and the only reason she is the leader of the congress party is cos the congress party is still stuck in the 1940s political-lineage mentality. She was the wife of Rajiv Gandhi, a former Indian PM from the 80s and thus is part of the Congress party's ruling junta.

The "communal harmony" line is often used when someone makes fun of Sonia Gandhi for being the real power behind the current PM(Manmohan Singh), especially if the comment highlights the fact that Sonia is not Indian. Furthermore one of her close friends, a fellow Italian Businessman has been convicted of being part of the Multibillion $ Bofors Scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bofors_scandal

In other words, this undemocratic statement by the current IT minister has no connection whatsoever to Hinduism. In fact his argument is that the "religious minorities""might be offended".

BTW when faced with severe criticism he had retracted his statement. A statement by a minister in a democracy like India != law.
:)